平安時代に成立した歌物語、伊勢物語で「男=在原業平」はある女性と恋に落ちます。それは、当時権勢を誇った藤原氏の姫君・高子と言われています。近々天皇の妃となる身で、臣籍降下した業平とは、とても釣り合わない恋でした。
ある晩、業平は高子をおぶって逃げ出し、蔵で雨宿りをしていました。安全と思われた蔵の奥に姫を休ませて、業平は入口で番をします。
ところが蔵の奥には鬼が隠れており、姫を一口で呑み込んでしまいました。夜が明けて業平が振り向くと、そこに姫はいません。泣いて後悔しましたが、後の祭りだったという話があります。
鬼に食われたというのは事実ではなく、高子を屋敷の外に連れ出すのも困難な状況だったといわれていますが、このような物語にされるほど身分違いの恋は切ないものでした。
後に、在原業平は平安時代を代表する歌人となります。現代では、百人一首で有名な「千早ぶる神代もきかず龍田川 からくれなゐに水くくるとは」の句がよく知られており、タイトルもここから名付けています。(樽屋雅徳)
In the Heian period collection of waka poems, Ise Monogatari (The Tales of Ise) a man (Ariwara no Narihira) falls in love with a woman. She is said to have been the Princess Takaiko, daughter of Fujiwara no Nagara, who was in power at the time. With her soon to become a consort of the Emperor and Narihira having been demoted from the nobility to the rank of a subject, their love was completely incompatible.
One evening, Narihira ran away with Takaiko on his back and the two sheltered from the rain in a storehouse. Narihira had the princess rest at the back of the storehouse, thinking it was safe, and stood guard at the entrance.
However, there was an ogre hiding at the back of the storehouse, and he swallowed the princess in a single bite. When morning came and Narihira turned around, the princess was nowhere to be seen. He cried with regret, but the story says it was too late for tears.
It is said to be untrue that she was eaten by a demon and that it would have been difficult to bring Takaiko out from her mansion, but it is sad and touching that love between people of different social rank should be made into such a story.
Later, Ariwara no Narihira became the most famous poet of the Heian era.
These days, the famous phrase "Even in the mythical times when the gods held sway, it is unheard of to make a ruby red dye from the fallen leaves that cover the Tatsuta River" (Chihayaburu kamiyo mokikazu tatsutagawa, karakurenaini mizukukurutowa) is well known from the traditional game One Hundred Poems by One Hundred Poets (Hyakunin Isshu), and the title also comes from here.
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